Thursday, 4 May 2017

Damascus. Sharing the Love, Sharing a Bottle of Milk.I was walking in one of the death-ridden streets of Damascus when I came across these two beautiful children sitting on the sidewalk and selling bread.They were sharing a small bottle of Papay milk, a popular brand in Damascus.Many
Syrian children do not attend school and are working to be able to help
their families to survive in a place where Assad and his allies Russia
and Iran are not giving up until they force all Syrian people to flee
and leave their own cities and become refugees.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 22March 2017

China 5.2017: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 27 April 2017

China 5.2017: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 27 April 2017

China 5.2017: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 27 April 2017

U.S. Army photographer Spc. Hilda Clayton captures her own death in mortar explosion: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 3 May 2017

your innocent windshield

remembers the life of that bug

but isn't losing any sleep over it

and those deer better step lively in your path

over the dark asphalt where no sound exists save

the noise you make

as if blown toward me like metal leaves

from the three districts whence the smoke arose

back

then

and now arises again

in the aqueous urban dawn

of a nation consecrated to death

this much at least we will be able to trust

and when we are gone from this environment of death, and these disturbances you have interjected,your beautiful inventions,

have continued to do their work somewhere, suffering

and causing suffering

outside our brains

and beyond our minds,

this is perhaps the one thing we will have been able to trust, in the night of the quiet bug

startled by the light of the generous man

#USA
A streak of light trails off into the sky as the US military test fires
an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile. Photo Ringo H.W. Chiu
#AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 May 2017

A child in Ain Issa camp one of the thousand's of #IDPs who have fled #IslamicState in #Raqqa Photo @Delilsouleman @AFPphoto: image via Sunday Times Pictures @STPictures, 2 May 2017

Eastern Ghouta. We don't fear bombing! The
5 boys pictured here laughed at me when I asked them "Aren't you afraid
of all the bombings happening right now in your neighborhood?"They smiled and answered: ""No, we aren't. It's in the next street." These
boys are among the majority of children who live in besieged areas,
like the Ghouta area in rural Damascus where this picture was taken.They
no longer fear death, but rather try to live as fully as possible,
because they are surrounded daily by frequent reminders that death hides
in every corner and could strike at any moment.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 3 May 2017

Eastern Ghouta. We don't fear bombing! The
5 boys pictured here laughed at me when I asked them "Aren't you afraid
of all the bombings happening right now in your neighborhood?"They smiled and answered: ""No, we aren't. It's in the next street." These
boys are among the majority of children who live in besieged areas,
like the Ghouta area in rural Damascus where this picture was taken.They
no longer fear death, but rather try to live as fully as possible,
because they are surrounded daily by frequent reminders that death hides
in every corner and could strike at any moment.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 3 May 2017

Eastern Ghouta. We don't fear bombing! The
5 boys pictured here laughed at me when I asked them "Aren't you afraid
of all the bombings happening right now in your neighborhood?"They smiled and answered: ""No, we aren't. It's in the next street." These
boys are among the majority of children who live in besieged areas,
like the Ghouta area in rural Damascus where this picture was taken.They
no longer fear death, but rather try to live as fully as possible,
because they are surrounded daily by frequent reminders that death hides
in every corner and could strike at any moment.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 3 May 2017

Bombing his own people. Qaboun, Damascus. An air strike
on Qaboun neighborhood by Assad's forces. Assad has been murdering his
own people since the beginning of the popular protests in 2011 to
suppress them and hold onto his position as president.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 27 February 2017

Bombing his own people. Qaboun, Damascus. An air strike
on Qaboun neighborhood by Assad's forces. Assad has been murdering his
own people since the beginning of the popular protests in 2011 to
suppress them and hold onto his position as president.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 27 February 2017

Bombing his own people. Qaboun, Damascus. An air strike
on Qaboun neighborhood by Assad's forces. Assad has been murdering his
own people since the beginning of the popular protests in 2011 to
suppress them and hold onto his position as president.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 27 February 2017

And the battle of the silent Damascus started... Barzeh, Damascus, the capital of Syria. Damascus may finally breathe freedom again, after 46 years under the rule of the dictator Assad.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 22March 2017

And the battle of the silent Damascus started... Barzeh, Damascus, the capital of Syria. Damascus may finally breathe freedom again, after 46 years under the rule of the dictator Assad.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 22March 2017

And the battle of the silent Damascus started... Barzeh, Damascus, the capital of Syria. Damascus may finally breathe freedom again, after 46 years under the rule of the dictator Assad.: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 22March 2017

#Iraq
A damaged building on the front line in Mosul's Old City during an
offensive to retake the city from IS group fighters. Photo Ahmad
Al-Rubaye #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 May 2017

#Iraq A
member of the Iraqi security forces is reflected in a mirror while
holding a position on the front line in Mosul. Photo Ahmad Al-Rubaye
#AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 May 2017

#Iraq
A member of the Iraqi forces rests on the hood of an armoured vehicle
during a patrol in west Mosul. Photo Ahmad Al-Rubaye #MosulOffensive: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 May 2017

Mosul residents reach
out for freshly baked cookies at a food distribution point inside
western Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Thousands of people still
live in the western part of the city where food is getting scarce due to
fighting between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State group.: photo by Bram Janssen/AP, 2 May 2017

#South
Sudan A child suffering from cholera drinks water at a specialized
hospital near the Mingkaman Internally Displaced People camp. Photo
@AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 May 2017

#South
Sudan A boy suffering from cholera drinks water at a specialized
hospital near the Mingkaman Internally Displaced People camp. Photo
@AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 May 2017

#Macedonia Protesters enter the parliament building after breaking through a police cordon.
By Boris Grdanoski @AP_Images: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 May 2017

A woman rests on a tire
at a roadblock set up by residents outside her home in El Hatillo's
municipality near Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Residents
blocked streets with trash bags, broken concrete and twisted metal
Tuesday to protest the president's bid to rewrite the constitution amid a
deepening political crisis.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 2 May 2017

Bolivarian National Guards stand on a
highway overlooking an anti-government march trying to make its way to
the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
Driving the latest outrage is a decree by Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro to begin the process of rewriting Venezuela???s constitution,
which was pushed through in 1999 by his predecessor and mentor, the late
President Hugo Chavez.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

Anti-government protesters use homemade
shields as they face off with security forces blocking their march from
reaching the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 3,
2017. Driving the latest outrage is a decree by Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro to begin the process of rewriting Venezuela's
constitution, which was pushed through in 1999 by his predecessor and
mentor, the late President Hugo Chavez.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

An anti-government protest against
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's decree to rewrite the constitution
is met with tear gas from the Bolivarian National Guard as they are
blocked from reaching the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela,
Wednesday, May 3, 2017.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

Anti-government protesters burn a
Bolivarian National Guard motorbike, as one of them is covered in
flames, left, during clashes with security forces blocking their march
from reaching the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday,
May 3, 2017. Driving the latest outrage is a decree by Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro to begin the process of rewriting Venezuela's
constitution, which was pushed through in 1999 by his predecessor and
mentor, the late President Hugo Chavez.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

A man is aided by fellow anti-government
protesters after he was burnt when demonstrators set fire to a
Bolivarian National Guard motorbike as security forces block their march
from reaching the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday,
May 3, 2017. Driving the latest outrage is a decree by Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro to begin the process of rewriting Venezuela's
constitution, which was pushed through in 1999 by his predecessor and
mentor, the late President Hugo Chavez.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

A masked anti-government protester, with
a rosary dangling from his wrist, walks away from a Bolivarian National
Guard armored vehicle approaching a march against Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. Thousands
of protesters were met with plumes of tear gas just miles from where
Maduro delivered a decree kicking off a process to rewrite the troubled
nation's constitution.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 3 May 2017

Real Madrid supporters
gather around the stadium before the Champions League semifinal first
leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at the Santiago
Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 2, 2017.: photo by Francisco Seco/AP, 2 May 2017

A TV screen shows
images of the U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in
Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. South Koreans are bewildered
by President Donald Trump’s recent use of the term “smart cookie” to
refer to current leader Kim Jong Un, and by Trump’s assertion that he’d
be “honored” by a possible meeting.: photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP, 2 May 2017

South #Korea The US and South Korea conduct joint military exercises in Pocheon.
By @KimHongji: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 May 2017

Damon Brumfield, a
student at Southern University of Baton Rouge, poses while his friends
take photos, in front of a mural honoring Alton Sterling, outside the
Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, May 2, 2017. The U.S.
Justice Department has decided not to charge two white Baton Rouge
police officers in the death of Sterling, whose death was captured on
cell phone video, fueling protests in Louisiana's capital and beyond.: photo by Gerald Herbert/AP, 2 May 2017

Coverage of #AltonSterling's death was this graphic for a reason. DOJ decision not to prosecute equates to amnesia.: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 3 May 2017

President Donald Trump
walks from the Rose Garden back to the Oval Office of the White House in
Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, following a presentation ceremony of
the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the Air Force Academy football team.: photo by Susan Walsh/AP, 2 May 2017

A police officer aims
his weapon at people looting a truck allegedly set on fire by drug
traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Several
public buses and cargo trucks were torched in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday
in what Brazilian military police said was likely gang retaliation for a
large anti-drug operation: photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP, 2 May 2016

Israeli
children play on a tank displayed by the Israeli military as part of
Independence Day celebrations, near Tel Aviv. @arielschalit: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 2 May 2017

A
team of window washers descend on ropes as they clean an office
building in Beijing, May 2, 2017. #APPhoto by Mark Schiefelbein: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 2 May 2017

Relatives of Ghulam
Mohammad mourn at his residence in village Sohi, in Uttar Pradesh
state's Bulandshahar district, India, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. Indian
police have detained three members of a Hindu militia for suspected
involvement in the killing of the Muslim man who they blamed for helping
an interfaith couple elope. The detained men belong to the Hindu Yuva
Vahini, or the Hindu Youth Brigade, which was set up by Hindu priest
Yogi Adityanath, who Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently named chief
minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most-populous state.: photo by Altaf
Qadri/AP, 3 May 2017

Trump supporters,
right, taunt one of the organizers of the "100 Days of Failure" protest
and march, Saturday, April 29, 2017, in New York. Thousands of people
across the U.S. are marching on President Donald Trump's hundredth day
in office to demand action on climate change.: photo by Mary Altaffer/AP, 29 April 2017

Cruel
springtime in Kashmir (a fierce beauty)

There is no flag large enough to hide the shame of killing innocent people ..
War till victory .. ! #GoIndiaGoBack #Kashmir: image via Nimra Mahmood @MahmoodNimra, 3 May 2017

Frantz Fanon: Concerning Violence

National
liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of nationhood to the
people, commonwealth: whatever may be the headings used or the new
formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. At
whatever level we study it -- relationships between individuals, new names
for sports clubs, the human admixture at cocktail parties, in the
police, on the directing boards of national or private
banks -- decolonization is quite simply the replacing of a certain
"species" of men by another "species" of men. Without any period of
transition, there is a total, complete, and absolute substitution. It is
true that we could equally well stress the rise of a new nation, the
setting up of a new state, its diplomatic relations, and its economic
and political trends. But we have precisely chosen to speak of that kind
of tabula rasa which characterizes at the outset all
decolonization. Its unusual importance is that it constitutes, from the
very first day, the minimum demands of the colonized. To tell the truth,
the proof of success lies in a whole social structure being changed
from the bottom up. The extraordinary importance of this change is that
it is willed, called for, demanded. The need for this change exists in
its crude state, impetuous and compelling, in the consciousness and in
the lives
of the men and women who are colonized. But the possibility of this
change is equally experienced in the form of a terrifying future in the
consciousness of another "species" of men and women: the colonizers.

Decolonization,
which sets out to change the order of the world, is, obviously, a
program of complete disorder. But it cannot come as a result of magical
practices, nor of a natural shock, nor of a friendly understanding.
Decolonization, as we know, is a historical process: that is to say that
it cannot be understood, it cannot become intelligible nor clear to
itself except in the exact measure that we can discern the movements
which give it historical form and content. Decolonization is the meeting
of two forces, opposed to each other by their very nature, which in
fact owe their originality to that sort of substantification which
results from and is nourished by the situation in the colonies.

Their
first encounter was marked by violence and their existence
together -- that is to say the exploitation of the native by the
settler--was carried on by dint of a great array of bayonets and
cannons. The settler and the native are old acquaintances. In fact, the
settler is right when he speaks of knowing "them" well. For it is the
settler who has brought the native into existence and who perpetuates
his existence. The settler owes the fact of his very existence, that is
to say, his property, to the colonial system.

Decolonization
never takes place unnoticed, for it influences individuals and modifies
them fundamentally. It transforms spectators crushed with their
inessentiality into privileged actors, with the grandiose glare of
history's floodlights upon them. It brings a natural rhythm into
existence, introduced by new men, and with it a new language and a new
humanity. Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men. But this
creation owes nothing of its legitimacy to any supernatural power; the "thing" which has been colonized becomes man during the same process by which it frees itself.

In
decolonization, there is therefore the need of a complete calling in
question of the colonial situation. If we wish to describe it precisely,
we might find it in the wellknown words: "The last shall be first and
the first last." Decolonization is the putting into practice of this
sentence. That is why, if we try to describe it, all decolonization is
successful.

The
naked truth of decolonization evokes for us the searing bullets and
bloodstained knives which emanate from it. For if the last shall be
first, this will only come to pass after a murderous and decisive
struggle between the two protagonists. That affirmed intention to place
the last at the head of things, and to make them climb at a pace (too
quickly, some say) the well-known steps which characterize an organized
society, can only triumph if we use all means to turn the scale,
including, of course, that of violence.

You
do not turn any society, however primitive it may be, upside down with
such a program if you have not decided from the very beginning, that is
to say from the actual formulation of that program, to overcome all the
obstacles that you will come across in so doing. The native who decides
to put the program into practice, and to become its moving force, is
ready for violence at all times. From birth it is clear to him that this
narrow world, strewn with prohibitions, can only be called in question
by absolute violence.

Frantz Fanon: Concerning Violence, from The Wretched of the Earth (Damnés de la terre), 1961, translated by Constance Farrington

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing the innocent people: image via madiha khan @ShaktiMadiha, 3 May 2017

#Kashmir Students Protest.
Young Students Protest and Ask @UN to take action against genocide.: image via Syed Ali @Ali_answers, 3 May 2017

Many female students resorted to stone throwing during clashes in Srinagar on April 24, 2017. @lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 24 April 2017

Kashmiri students in Indian-administered Kashmir take part in mass protests [photo Faisal Khan]: image via Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish, 27 April 2017

Kashmiri students in Indian-administered Kashmir take part in mass protests [photo Faisal Khan]: image via Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish, 27 April 2017

Kashmiri students in Indian-administered Kashmir take part in mass protests [photo Faisal Khan]: image via Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish, 27 April 2017

Kashmiri students in Indian-administered Kashmir take part in mass protests [photo Faisal Khan]: image via Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish, 27 April 2017

Female
Kashmiri students lead anti-India protests: Students from various
female colleges in Indian-administered Kashmir take part in mass
protests against Indian soldiers: Faisal Khan, AlJazeera 27 April 2017

A
17-year-old was reportedly shot dead by security forces on April 15 in
Indian-administered Kashmir while at least 50 college students were
wounded by police officers who fired pellets and tear gas.

Video showing Indian soldiers using physical abuse sparked
anger leading to violent clashes between police and protesting students
outside Government Degree College Pulwama.

Indian police, assisted by paramilitary troops, created a
checkpoint outside the college to arrest the boys who they said were
involved in stone-throwing incidents.

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters but the
clashes intensified when pellets were fired, leaving many students
injured, including Zeeshan Ahmed, who was injured in the head.

More than 15 students were admitted to the district
hospital in Pulwama on the same day. Most of them suffered pellet
injuries to their eyes. Zeeshan was later transferred to a hospital in
Srinagar for specialised treatment, a senior doctor at Pulwama hospital
told a local newspaper.

Mass protests then broke out as a result, with students from other colleges, including a girls' college, taking part.

The day-long protests and clashes on April 17 left more than 50 students injured.

Political
space has been choked, Kashmir has formally been handed over to Army
and Police, India has waged war against Unarmed public #kashmir: image via Muhammad Kamran @KamranFcma, 1 May 2017

With every killing, with every brutality and with every act of
injustice; a new stone pelter, a new rebel and a new Burhan is born. #Kashmir: image via Muhammad Kamran @KamranFcma, 3 May 2017

Clashes near the encounter site in south Kashmir's Padgampora, Pulwama on March 09, 2017. @lookaround 81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 9 March 2017

Protesters run during clashes in Rawalpora area of Srinagar Kashmir on March 31, 2017@lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 31 March 2017

#India A gunsmith works inside a gun factory in Jammu on May 3, 2017, in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. Alok Pathani #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 May 2017GAZA CITY - Palestinian fishermen load their nets onto a boat before sailing into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. @MahmudHams#AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 May 2017